Co-Active Coach Training: Fundamentals
I started the Co-Active Coach Training series with the first course, Fundamentals, in mid-January. It was a great introduction to the Co-Active coaching approach and I am so happy to have found a coaching method that feels like the right fit for me and will support the leaders I coach. I have known about Co-Active coaching for some time, but re-found it recently when I was exploring Tara Mohr’s work
As a facilitator first, the design of the virtual training impressed me. We had two certified professional coach instructors, three assistants that were coaches who had already been through this course and one person dedicated to the Zoom technology. In order to get credit for this course, you can only miss at most one hour of the entire multi-day training and they ask that cameras and microphones are on unless your environment truly is too noisy. This arrangement of default to on, meant that chuckles, sighs and reactions are audible and I did not feel I could multi-task. It made me nervous not to see the agenda, but this led to trusting the instructors and letting myself be led. There was a nice mix of full group and breakouts into smaller groups and the instructors paced the class with enough short and long breaks. This attention to detail and skill, allowed for me to learn a lot and to make connections - one metric of success. All of this together led to it being the best workshop I have ever been to in person or remote.
So what did I learn?
I learned how to design an alliance with my client. The client and the coach co-create the relationship and the coach is not there to ‘fix’ the client. I love this idea of having a conversation to design the alliance in so many other spaces - at the beginning of a workshop or training, with my husband or my family. The language to make the implicit expectations explicit was powerful.
I learned to listen. I went into this training as a new coach feeling like I had to perform for my client and ‘act like a coach.’ What I learned was that I need to tune into my client. What are they saying with words, with expressions? What am I observing and sensing? I also learned that taking notes is a barrier to listening and I have stopped taking notes.
I learned to interrupt. kindly. This isn’t talking over your client or refocusing on yourself, it’s kindly intruding when the client detours or when you want to emphasize or amplify what is being said. This sort of intruding is laid out in the initial designed alliance and when it happens you can say something like, “I’m going to pause you there… “
I learned to get to the point and bottom line things. Short powerful questions, normally that are ‘what…?’ questions.
I learned to stop problem solving for my clients. That is consulting. My job as a coach is to support my client’s growth so that they can see over their problems and solve their own problems. This is a big one for me. I am more aware of this tendency to problem-solve or get sucked into the story and I can just acknowledge to the client and myself, I am heading toward problem solving and want to get back to coaching.
What’s next?
My next class is Fulfillment at the end of February. I am working with clients using these tools, designing alliances with people in my life and really trying to be present and listen to whoever I am in conversation with. I hope to wrap up this training and become a certified Co-Active Coach by December of this year. In addition, I am working with a mentor, Francine Campone, 1-1 to evaluate my coaching as part of the International Coaching Federation Certification process. I hope to be an ICF Accredited Coach (ACC) by June. While I’m still training, I am offering a 7-series 1-1 coaching package on a reduced price, sliding scale.